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Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Luke Scott’s sci-fi/horror thriller
Morgan is a frustrating watch. Admirable in it’s ambition,
full of potentially interesting themes and ideas, with a fantastic cast and
heady premise, there’s a great deal to ingest and appreciate. Which makes it
maddening that the finished product face plants into tedium, the painful twist
becomes obvious five minutes in, and it never capitalizes on what works in its
favor.

Recently, the BBC polled almost 200 film critics from around
the world to compile a list of the top 100 movies of the 21st century so far.
The reveal caused quite a ruckus in certain circles—and by that I mean the
insular community that watches far too many movies and spends most of its time
on film blogs and Twitter.

Monday, August 29, 2016

Red Dwarf is hands down my all-time
favorite TV show in the history of forever. Nothing even comes close. Multiple
times in my life I’ve spent 24 hours or more doing nothing but sitting on a
couch watching endless episodes of Red Dwarf. A British
sci-fi sitcom, what’s not to love? From this is may be rather obvious that the
prospect of a new series excites the living hell out of me. A trailer for
Red Dwarf XI just blasted into the stratosphere, and I
couldn’t be giddier.

Friday, August 26, 2016

I’ve been waiting for Don’t Breathe for what feels like forever at this point, and Fede Alvarez’ (Evil Dead) nasty, vicious horror joint doesn’t disappoint (check out my review HERE). Steeped in brutality and tension, it’s a catalog of nods and influences—there must be millions of “heist gone wrong” movies—and here are a handful the movie references, or that occurred to me while I watched.

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

The less known about Don’t Breathe going in, the better. The latest from director Fede Alvarez (the Evil Dead remake) is a nasty, vicious spin on the home invasion narrative. It’s also among the best horror movies of the year and easily a high point in what has been a lackluster summer season. Compact, efficient, and uncompromising, Don’t Breathe is one to absolutely sprint to the theater to see, presuming there’s an elevated tolerance for brutality and skin-peeling tension in play.

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Idris Elba is a total badass. For all the talk, I hope he
doesn’t become the next James Bond, not because I give two shits what color a fictional
spy’s skin is, but because I want him to keep doing other awesome stuff and not
be tied to one character for years at a time (he’s already on the Dark
Tower chain). Awesome stuff like a new documentary series where he’s
going to train to be a professional fighter and actually climb in the ring.

I’m a sucker for musicals, and I love, love, love the fact
that, after the massive critical success of Whiplash, when
he could have done damn near anything he wanted, Damien Chazelle made a goddamn
musical. And a musical starring the tag team of charm Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling to boot. La La Land hits theaters in December, and
though it’s a few months off in the distance, it just delivered a dreamy new
trailer.

Friday, August 19, 2016

As you can probably tell, I’m quite pumped for
Jean-Claude Van Johnson, the Jean-Claude Van Damme-starring
pilot on Amazon where the Muscles from Brussels plays a version of himself who
also happens to moonlight as an international assassin. I haven’t had the
chance to watch the show yet—that’s a treat for later today—but this trailer is
damn near perfect. Hopefully it will tide you over until you can check it out
for yourself.

Thursday, August 18, 2016

This week, Jean-Claude Van Damme teams up with Amazon do
deliver what is sure to be your favorite new show, Jean-Claude Van Johnson. Starring JCVD poking fun at himself, produced by Ridley Scott, and with a delightfully ridiculous premise, I’m 100% game, and taking a
look at a new collection of photos ups my excitement level even more.

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Sweeping biblical Epics have been Hollywood staples since
day one. Having fallen out of favor in recent years, the latest attempts haven’t
been great (the less said about Exodus: Gods and Kings the
better, yeesh), or tumble into heavy-handed religious fare (this year’s
Risen was much more watchable than most of it’s
Bible-thumping brethren, but it’s still only okay). But worry not, Timur
Bekmambetov, the guy who directed Abraham Lincoln: Vampire
Hunter, is here to attempt to revive the genre with yet another Ben-Hur
adaptation. And he’s bringing along the half-faced guy from Boardwalk
Empire and an actor best known for being really good at playing a
motion capture bonobo in the new Planet of the Apes
franchise.

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

UPDATED: With an international trailer that's even better. Today is a good day indeed. Check it out at the bottom of the post.Because we live in a world where even trailers get their own
marketing push, we recently saw a short trailer for the trailer for Denis
Villeneuve’s upcoming alien invasion drama Arrival. The full
trailer is now here to watch, and you should do that at your earliest
convenience, like right this moment.

Monday, August 15, 2016

Everyone is all pumped for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, especially in the wake of the trailer that dropped last week.
It looks like an awesome war movie that, while bearing obvious hallmarks of a
Star Wars movie, promises to bring something new to that
far, far away galaxy. And what would a Star Wars movie be without
some daddy issues? Which is what we get a glimpse of in this new Japanese
trailer.

If you’re a horror fan and Babak Anvaris’ Under the Shadow isn’t on your radar yet, that needs to change immediately. The
Iranian genre offering debuted at Sundance, made waves at subsequent festivals,
and garnered comparisons to recent indie horror favorites like It Follows and The Babadook. I like it at least as
much as one of those, and far more than the other, but check out this new
trailer and prepare to count the days until the domestic release.

Friday, August 12, 2016

I absolutely adore C.H.U.D., which, if
you don’t know, stands for Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers, AKA
homeless dudes living in the New York City sewers horribly mutated by radioactive
waste. It’s a dirty, nasty, low-down, wonderful ‘80s horror joint. One of my
all-time favorites, the 1984 cult feature is getting a fancy pants new Blu-ray
release.

At this point, can we all agree that every major movie
undergoes reshoots and that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story going
back for more isn’t the huge, end-of-days-are-upon-us deal that many have made
it out to be? Maybe the movie was/is in trouble, we won’t know for a few months
until we actually see it for ourselves. But in the meantime, the latest trailer
looks fucking fantastic. Don’t take my word for it, check it out for yourself.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Initially, I wasn’t sure how much I was going to enjoy
Sausage Party, the animation-for-adults feature from the
minds of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the team behind the likes of
Superbad, This is the End, and similarly
foul-mouthed comedies.

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

He had a bit part in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Raid has become a modern action
classic, and hardcore fans of badass cinema laud him as one of the preeminent
movie martial artists of the modern era, but Indonesian star Iko Uwais is way,
way underrated. Anything he does is a must-watch, and that includes his latest,
Headshot. It’s even better that he’s teaming up with the Mo
Brothers (Killers, Macabre), and a slew
of punchy, kicky new photos just washed up on the internet to pummel us about
the head and neck.

Okay, I think we can all admit that, as far as big summer
blockbusters go, 2016 has been a less than stellar year. But as the season
winds to a close, that doesn’t mean there aren’t still quality films on the
way. One of my most anticipated movies of this particular trip around the sun,
Fede Alvarez’s Don’t Breathe, hits in a few weeks, and it
just released a rough new red band trailer.

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Sci-fi is my jam, and as much as I love alien invasions
where the outsiders show up and wreak havoc, the pinnacle of the genre has
always been the thoughtful, brainy, human works that use the speculative
trappings to hold a mirror up to society. Not that the two are necessarily
mutually exclusive, but Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival promises
to fall firmly into that second camp. Yesterday we got our first look at the
film, and today arrives with a shiny new teaser trailer. Check it out below.

As much as I dig post-apocalyptic movies, I’m self-aware
enough to know my particular skillset is all but useless after civilization
crumbles and the world goes to shit. I’m fucked six ways to Sunday, that’s all
there is to it. But so are Gabriel Diani and Etta Devine, a comedy duo and the
leads of Diani & Devine Meet the Apocalypse. The
crowdfunded end-of-the-world comedy dropped a new trailer, and from the look of
things, these kids are having a rough go of it. Good to know I won’t be alone.

Thus far, I’m all-in when it come to Marvel’s episodic
Netflix universe. Daredevil is a leaps and bounds beyond the
Ben Affleck-fronted cinematic travesty. Jessica Jones made
superheroes feel fresh and vital in a way most similar properties lack in
modern times. While we met him, Luke Cage is next up, and
though we still have a couple months to wait, this badass new trailer should
get you pumped up.

Monday, August 8, 2016

Before he dives deep into Blade Runner 2,
Denis Villeneuve is splashing around in the science fiction pool with the alien
invasion drama Arrival. We still don’t know a ton about the picture,
but we’ve got our first look at stars Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner thanks to two
new photos.

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Yeon Sang-ho’s zombie thriller, Train to
Busan, debuted at Cannes, set box office records in South Korea when
it opened a few weeks back, and has garnered glowing reviews stateside. (If you’re
wondering, I totally dig it and you should check it out.) All that attention
has captured a great deal of interest, and a remake is already in the works.

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Like the mismatched cadre of super villains of the title,
writer/director David Ayer’s Suicide Squad is chaotic and
frantic and all over the place. At times this fractured nature can be
propulsive and even invigorating. Other times—too often—this means the film is
a messy jumble, awkwardly paced, and sorely lacks focus or depth. It’s a mess.
An occasionally interesting mess, one not entirely without promise, but still a
mess.

Monday, August 1, 2016

It’s been almost 50 years since George Romero defined the
modern zombie in Night of the Living Dead (it’s crazy how
fresh that movie still feels), and those decades have been full of countless
takes on the subgenre. Hell, there are even subgenres within the subgenre—one
of my favorites is the Nazi-zombies-in-bodies-of-water subset. While there have
been monumental achievements using this framework, as time goes on, things have
become stale with age. There’s not much to do that hasn’t been done, but every
once in a while a movie comes along and infuses the undead with a bit of
freshness. Danny Boyle did it with 28 Days Later, and South Korean director Yeon Sang-ho’s latest, Train to Busan, has a
similar effect.